Ralph Nader Builds Shrine To Tort Law

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader poses in front of a Chevrolet Corvair in the American Museum of Tort Law in Winsted, Conn. Nader featured the Corvair in his 1965 book on the auto industry's safety record, Unsafe At Any Speed.

A Chevrolet Corvair is displayed among graphic illustrations of various landmark cases in the American Museum of Tort Law.

Patrick Skahill
/ WNPR

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Originally published on September 28, 2015 10:23 pm

Consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader recently opened a museum filled with items like defective toys and unsafe machines all tied together under a unifying theme: tort law.

Unless you're a lawyer, you might not quite know the exact meaning of the word tort.

"It's a wrongful injury," Nader says. "It's a wrongful act that injures people and deserves a remedy."

At the American Museum of Tort Law's opening on Saturday, Nader spoke to an auditorium packed with supporters, students and — believe it or not — fans of tort lawyers. Gail Weed, a former volunteer on Nader's 2008 presidential campaign, was among them.

"I think of these people here as the Jedi Knights of the world," Weed says.

Singer Patti Smith was also there.

"Seeing Ralph speak is like going to a concert," Smith says. "He always makes me want to do better. He always makes me want to open my eyes wider, and he can even make you feel happily ashamed."

Smith, who counts herself as a Nader fan, came to sing at the event at Nader's invitation.

Nader says the idea for the museum came from a chat he had with another lawyer in Boulder, Colo., in the 1990s.

"The conversation steered to, 'Well, what do you do when you finish the case with these wonderful exhibits that you have in the courtroom?' " he says.

Think exhibits for cases like the one in the '90s where a woman sued McDonald's after suffering third-degree burns from her coffee — or safety litigation against the auto industry, which helped Nader rise to prominence as a consumer advocate and public interest lawyer.

"So I feel a great debt to the common law of torts," Nader says.

To pay that debt, Nader has been working for nearly 20 years to open his shrine to tort law. Eventually, he raised about $2 million in private donations and inaugurated the small museum in his hometown of Winsted, Conn. Colorful pop-art style wall panels document battles against big tobacco. There's a room filled with items like a teddy bear with dangerous fur a child could choke on. (Don't worry, the toys are kept behind glass.)

"We wanted to walk the line between being too ivory tower and too cartoon-y and oversimplified," says museum executive director Rick Newman. "If there is a case involving a defective product, that litigation can change the entire industry and improve safety for everybody."

Newman says nothing embodies the power of tort law better than the museum's centerpiece: a bright red Chevy Corvair. Nader's book Unsafe at Any Speed was in part, an investigation of that car. The book drove the establishment of safety features like seat belts and airbags.

As the day wound down, Nader, a man who built his career on outrage, seemed happy. He smiled often as people funneled into his unlikely monument to torts. So why is his name nowhere to be found on the museum's marquee?

"The common law of torts should be named the American Common Law of Torts. Everybody contributed to it. Millions of jurors, tens of thousands of lawsuits and brave witnesses — everybody participated in it. Why would you put anybody's name on it?" he says.

In case you're wondering, admission costs $7. And yes, the museum does have a gift shop, but there's nothing unsafe here, mostly books and T-shirts.

Defective toys and unsafe machines - these are a few of Ralph Nader's least favorite things. They're also the items on display in the new museum that Nader just opened in Connecticut. His hope is to educate people about a particular piece of the U.S. legal system, tort law. Patrick Skahill of member station WNPR got a first look at the museum.

PATRICK SKAHILL, BYLINE: Unless you're a lawyer, you might not quite know the exact meaning of the word tort.

RALPH NADER: It's a wrongful injury. It's a wrongful act that injures people and deserves a remedy.

SKAHILL: That's Ralph Nader - lawyer, consumer advocate, and now, founder of the American Museum of Tort Law. This weekend, Nader spoke to an auditorium packed with supporters, students and - weird as it sounds - fans of tort lawyers - people like Gail Weed, a former volunteer on Nader's 2008 presidential campaign.

GAIL WEED: I think of these people here as the Jedi Knights of the world.

PATTI SMITH: Seeing Ralph speak is like going to a concert.

SKAHILL: That's singer Patti Smith, who also counts herself as a fan.

SMITH: He always makes me want to do better. He always makes me want to open my eyes wider. And he can even make you feel happily ashamed.

SKAHILL: Smith came to sing at Nader's invitation.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SMITH: (Singing) People have the power. People have the power.

SKAHILL: Nader says the idea came from a chat he had with another lawyer in Boulder, Colo., in the 1990s.

NADER: The conversation steered to, well, what do you do when you finish the case with these wonderful exhibits that you have in the courtroom?

SKAHILL: Think exhibits for cases like the one in the '90s where a woman sued McDonald's after suffering third-degree burns from her coffee or safety litigation against the auto industry, which helped Nader rise to prominence as a consumer advocate and public interest lawyer.

NADER: So I feel a great debt to the common law of torts.

SKAHILL: To pay that debt, Nader's been working for nearly 20 years to open his shrine to tort law. Eventually, he raised about $2 million in private donations and this weekend inaugurated a small museum in his hometown of Winsted, Conn. Colorful pop-art style wall panels document battles against big tobacco. There's an island of misfit toys, or, rather, a room, filled with items like a teddy bear with dangerous fur that a child could choke on. Don't worry. The toys are all kept behind glass.

RICK NEWMAN: We wanted to walk the line between being too ivory tower and too cartoony and oversimplified.

SKAHILL: Rick Newman is the museum's executive director.

NEWMAN: If there is a case involving a defective product, that litigation can change the entire industry and improve safety for everybody.

SKAHILL: Newman says nothing embodies the power of tort law better than the museum's centerpiece, a bright red Chevy Corvair. Ralph Nader's book "Unsafe At any Speed" was, in part, an investigation of that car. The book drove the establishment of safety features like seatbelts and airbags. As the day wound down, Nader, a man who built his career on outrage, seemed happy. He smiled as people funneled into his unlikely monument of torts. As to why his name was nowhere to be found on the museum's marquee...

NADER: The common law of torts should be named the American Common Law of Torts. Everybody contributed to it. Millions of jurors and tens of thousands of lawsuits and brave witnesses - everybody participated in it. Why would you put anybody's name on it?